Prisoner of Paradise

Robin Clifford

Laura Clifford

The life of Kurt Gerron, the legendary German-Jewish stage and film
star of the1920’s and 30’s, is not well known in America. Academy Award winning
documentarian Malcolm Clarke and co-director Stuart Sender remedy this lack
with their insightful look at the man, once at the top of his field, who lost
everything to the Nazis and eventually sunk to the level of directing a film
of their propaganda in order to survive the Holocaust in “Prisoner of Paradise.”

Robin:
The docu follows Kurt Gerron’s remarkable career as a Cabaret and theater
star during the lively bustle of Berlin in the 20’s. This city full of music
and nightlife is the fertile ground that spawned the artist professional
as he rose to the top of his craft in acting and directing. As Gerron’s prominence
increased so did that of another man of grand ambition – Adolph Hitler. The
Jewish Laws handed down by the new German chancellor where Jews are decried
by law to be second-class citizen, losing rights and possessions. Gerron,
as a result, was ordered off the set of his latest film by Nazi officials
and was forced to flee to Paris, leaving all that he owned to the fascists.

Gerron, penniless, searched in vain for theater and film work in France.
He ignores the cautionary advice about the Nazis from his colleagues, such
as Joseph von Sternberg, Fritz Lang and Peter Lorre, whom Gerron raised funds
to send to America. The great actor and filmmaker was forced to move to Amsterdam
where he achieved a modicum of his old success – until the Nazis invade Poland,
then the rest of Europe, including Holland. Suddenly, the dreaded Laws apply
to all of occupied Europe and Gerron is relegated, by his masters, to perform
at Amsterdam’s Jewish Theater.

Then, in 1942 Hitler’s henchmen met at a lakeside conference in Wannsee,
Germany and, in 90 minutes, decide the ultimate fate for Europe’s Jews -
the Final Solution. During the third act of Gerron’s latest play, a bemedalled
Nazi officer appears, taking inventory of the theater. The next day, when
Gerron and company arrive for rehearsal, their theater is in shambles and
the officer announces that it is the new Transportation Center for Jews.
The actor/director and his colleagues are eventually shipped to the concentration
camp at Theresienstatd in Czechoslovakia.

The camp became the way station to death for the wealthy, celebrity, intellectual
and artistic members of Europe’s Jewry, those whose disappearance would be
most noticed by the rest of the world. The presence of the famous inmates
of Theresienstatd leads the Nazis to cook up a sham to convince those outside
of the Reich of their good intentions toward the Jews. When the International
Red Cross, reacting to the demands by neutral countries, requests inspection
of a concentration camp, the Nazis are happy to comply. They dress up the
façade of the old city turned prison, planting flowers, dressing up
the inmates and showing all is happy and prosperous, leading the Red Cross
representative through a carefully choreographed tour of the Theresienstatd
camp. The ruse works.

So successful is the lie that the camp wardens hold a contest for a screenplay
to show how wonderful life is in the Theresienstatd, with the finished film
distributed to the neutral nations. The first attempt at the documentary,
by the young woman who wrote the treatment, is terrible, an indictment of
the Nazis. She is executed. The camp commandant selects Kurt Gerron to make
the documentary, demanding that it show the wonderful treatment of Jews under
Nazi “care.” He takes on the task of creating a whitewashed depiction of
the happy, healthy inmates eating bread and butter and playing music and
dancing. But, the filmmaker’s desperate effort, in his mind a betrayal of
his people, to survive come to naught and, on 28 October 1944, Gerron and
his wife were executed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Clarke and Sender chose a unique subject in Kurt Gerron for their Oscar-nominated
work. They collect a bevy of still shots of the actor and director, clips
from films such as “Blue Angel” with Marlene Dietrich, and many interviews
with Gerron’s contemporaries, colleagues and surviving family. Although Gerron’s
own insights to the times are not documented, the viewpoints of others helps
build a look at a man of talent, compassion and kindness. They discuss his
humane help, often monetary, to others to escape the Nazi oppression while
he repeatedly fails to heed the same warnings – to fatal ends.

The documakers gathered previously unseen footage of the period and weave
together the story of Gerron’s life and times, his success and Nazi-imposed
failure and, ultimately, his death. When he is chosen to direct the mock
documentary of the life of the Jews under the Nazis, Gerron sought the advice
of the camps Jewish council of elders who recommended that he “do whatever
it takes to survive.” Even with this support from his own people, Gerron
still agonized over his possible betrayal of his fellows. The finished film
never saw the light of day outside of Nazi Germany.

“”Prisoner of Pleasure” is a different look at the victims of the Holocaust
through the story of a talented, popular actor and director who died at the
hands of his Nazi captors because of the sole fact that he was a Jew. I give
it a B.

Laura:
Beloved German-Jewish film star and director Kurt Gerron, who costarred
with Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel," was so focused on his career that
he seemed blind to the encroaching Nazi threat. While he organized
a financial pass of the hat among expatriate filmmakers in Amsterdam to get
an ailing Peter Lorre to Hollywood, Gerron boxed himself into a corner until
he became the ironic "Prisoner of Paradise."

Paradise being the concentration camp Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia,
where the Nazis herded Jewish celebrities and artists. This was the
camp that was used to present the model of the ideal treatment of the Jews
to the outside world. The Red Cross visited (with a tightly controlled
and choreographed agenda) and gave their stamp of approval. Goerring
decided to make another propaganda film and held a contest among the inmates.
The first attempt unwittingly allowed too much of the actual conditions to
be shown, outraging the Nazis, so Gerron was tapped. The beloved Berlin entertainer
became hated by many of his peers when he transformed the camp into 'heaven
on earth' for his camera. Even more ironically, Goerring had used footage
of Gerron to present his idea of the archetypical Jew in his early propaganda
films like "The Eternal Jew.'

"Prisoner of Paradise" filled last year's Oscar's nominated documentary
feature slot for the Holocaust subject, but this is certainly a unique look
at that much-covered horror of history. Ian Holm narrates and directors
Malcom Clarke (who also wrote) and Stuart Sender begin their film with a
fake out, having Holm describe a Utopian community of artists. This
turns out to be Theresienstadt, as publicized by the Germans. The filmmakers
then trace Gerron's career in cabaret and film with film clips and audio recordings
- Gerron's friend Bertholt Brecht provided him with his signature song, "Mack
the Knife." Gerron's influence, particularly in Berlin, is underlined
with the fact that he made 27 films in 1927 alone. In one inspired
look back, an old suit of Gerron's is displayed amidst candelabras and studio
lights on the Marlene Dietrich stage at Babelsberg Film Studios as we hear
him sing, giving the song a ghostly effect. Another eerie effect is
achieved by superimposing footage of transport trains over film of Gerron
doing a magic trick, making things disappear.

A former neighbor, who knew him as a star-struck little girl, describes
him as a jolly man with a big cigar who shared his life of luxury with friends
and family, yet he watched many of them, including colleagues Josef von Sternberg,
Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder, leave Berlin while he persisted in his European
career. Involved in directing a film in Amsterdam, Gerron rejected a
Hollywood job when he learned he and his family's passage would not be first
class! He even choose to perform at the Dutch seaside resort of Scheveningen
for two years during which he could have escaped. Only when it was
impossible to ignore the situation did Gerron panic, writing pitiable letters
to the likes of Fritz Lang, which, sadly, were ignored.

On February 26, 1944, Kurt Gerron arrived in Theresienstadt, where a survivor
describes his shock at seeing the once immense movie star starving.
Clarke and Sender paint Gerron as a Norma Desmond-ish character, dressing
the part of director while suffering the abusive words of the Nazis he was
filming for. The collaboration issue is sliced three ways with one survivor
describing their hatred for what Gerron was doing while another puts forth
the 'what would anyone do in his place' argument. A third perspective,
that his film was never shown to its intended audiences, is offered as a
historical acquittal.

The film suffers slightly, frustrating by offering too much speculation
on Gerron's thoughts during the time and too little factual evidence
of them. Still, "Prisoner of Paradise" leaves its audience with a sense of
sadness and loss for this childlike man who offered so much to so many before
his horrific end which was ironic on so many levels.